HR professionals and business managers are often asked for advice on how to get better results from new projects being established. Today’s HRwisdom post comes from Executive Coach, Robert Watson, a regular expert contributor to HRwisdom.

One of the great things about work teams or small businesses is that everyone gets to know each other very well. They can be friendly workplaces where most workers happily accommodate the various strengths and weaknesses of their colleagues. But have you ever seen a project as simple as organising the Christmas party turn into a fracas of frustration?

Unfortunately we assume that people who work together cooperatively will somehow make a great team to tackle a project.

HR Advice: Importance of Structure

In the normal work environment, there is a strong structure which exists. People know which department they are in, they know each other’s roles, they know how to go about their own work. These things might be contained in Organisation Charts and Standard Operating Procedures, and would be reinforced through training. Even in places where these things are not formalised, there will always be a strong informal structure prevailing in the workplace.

If people are formed into a team to work on a project, suddenly things fall apart. One person will be over enthusiastic and another totally bored. One will try to issue actions to people, and those people will fail to act. Meetings become places where missed Milestones get slipped even further, frustration sets in—quietly at first—then tempers boil over and the project starts to sink fast.

HR Advice: Strength comes from Structure

When pulling together a project team, typically it will be made up of a variety of good people who have not worked so closely together before. The nominated Project Leader needs to take a few steps to set the working relationship up the right way.

Project versus People: It is critical to talk about the job which needs to be accomplished. The Leader then uses the Project as the common ground which binds the team together. From time to time, the team is sure to have some infighting or personality clashes, but the Leader simply redirects the focus back to the task at hand.

Project Team Members: A good way to prevent clashes down the track is to acknowledge why each member has been selected for the project. Some will bring valuable experience, others might be good at communication, others might be significantly influential in the workplace—but the Leader is basically showing the team how each person has a special reason for being there.

Project Plan: Now that the members know what the project is about, and they know why each of them has been selected, the Leader can further bond the group by getting them to design up the Project Plan.

Here are the key elements:

• Project Title (or a Team Name)
• The major components of the Project, listed in a logical order
• A timeline, showing the entire Project and dates for any Milestones
• Protocol around how often the team will meet and how long each meeting will last
• On many workplace projects, there also needs to be a communication plan.

Action Plans: Finally, the components of the Project have to be broken down into discrete, manageable tasks assigned to particular team members.

Role of the Leader: The above points are the scene-setting parts, but once underway the Leader has to ensure progress and maintain momentum. A good way to do this is to touch base with each member in between meetings. Use the Action Plan as the tool to ask how the member is going. Be pleased about things happening well, and listen for roadblocks. If there is a problem, it is much better that the Leader discovers this outside of – and prior to – the meeting. This gives the possibility of catching up before a Milestone slips.

HR Advice: The Bottomline

Although most people see structure as constraining, for Projects structure becomes the backbone which greatly increases the likelihood of Project success.

Today’s HRwisdom article comes from regular expert contributor, Robert Watson.

Robert coaches Business Owners and senior managers in leadership, people development and recruitment. For readers of this article, Robert will provide short simple answers to short simple questions sent to him by email to: robert@managingwell.com.au.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support